Russia

What is the DOJ and the FBI hiding?

911 emergency call system could soon be routed through RUSSIAN satellites, giving Putin’s government the power to snoop and interfere with first responders

Russia’s own GPS system covers more ground than US satellites, so wireless phone companies want to leverage it to help locate 911 callers

Rep. Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican, is furious and says the move could give signals intelligence to an antagonistic Russian Federation

‘GLONASS’ is a Russian satellite network that has been able to see the whole planet since 1995

Part of its software crashed for a half-day last April, generating navigation signals that were off by as much as 50 kilometersBy

David Martosko, U.S. Political Editor for The Daily Mail

January 22, 2015

U.S. astronauts are already blasting off to the International Space Station on Russian rockets. But now the Federal Communications Commission is weighing a plan to use Moscow-based satellites to route America’s 911 emergency phone calls.

Congressional Republicans, already skittish about trusting the Vladimir Putin regime as it airs its expansionist desires through Europe, fear the Russian leader would gain access to real-time information about emergency responders in every corner of the United States.

‘In view of the threat posed to the world by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, it cannot be seriously considered that the U.S. would rely on a system in that dictator’s control for its wireless 911 location capability,’ Rogers wrote, in a letter first reporter by The Washington Times.

‘Our response to Russia’s hybrid warfare, arms control cheating, illegal invasions of sovereign nations, and energy-based extortion must be broad-based isolation and counter-leverage.’

A trade group that worked on the plan with major wireless phone carriers – including AT&T Mobility, Sprint, T-Mobile USA and Verizon – disagrees.

Trey Fogarty, government affairs director at the National Emergency Number Association, said there’s no American satellite system that can cover enough ground on its own without help from GLONASS.

His group worked with the companies and the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APSCO) to develop a way to give police, firefighters and medics better tools to locate people in time to help them when seconds count.

‘Our view is that we ought to be leveraging anything that is available to find someone in an emergency,’ Fogarty told the Times.

APSCO says Rep. Rogers is overreacting based on ‘plainly false statements that stretch the imagination to try to make a case that the roadmap’s inclusion of GLONASS for location determination presents a security threat.’

That stark condemnation came from the association’s government relations chief, Jeffrey Cohen, in a Dec. 24 letter to the FCC.

GLONASS itself is an alternative GPS system operated by 24 satellites, with 4 more planned. In April 2014 the entire system went offline for a half-day, leading everyone from Russian military planes to commercial shippers to generate incorrect location data – which was in some cases off by more than 50 kilometers.

Russia Today, a state-funded news outlet, reports that Moscow began developing GLONASS in 1976 and reached the point where it could cover the entire planet’s surface in 1995.

A total of 19 ground stations collect satellite data for consumer applications, providing signals with accuracy up to one meter.

‘Three more stations are located in the Antarctic and one in Brazil,’ according to RT, ‘with two more to be constructed in Kazakhstan and one in Belarus.’

Yesterday SU-25 fighter jets carried test modules over the skies of northern Kyrgyzstan on practice runs to demonstrate its military applications.

It’s the largest and only comprehensive GPS-workalike system in existence, according to Russian media outlets, which also report that its underlying technology has been shared with North Korea and Belarus.

Sprint said it aims to minimize the degree to which American companies rely on the Russian satellites.

‘The roadmap does not envision that carriers will rely exclusively on the GLONASS system,’ the company’s government affairs director Ray Rothermel wrote on Dec. 24 to FCC officials.

‘Rather, the roadmap advocates taking advantage of a tool that is available now to allow carriers to improve location information.’

The FCC has the authority to green-light or spike the proposal, but hasn’t chosen a path forward yet. A January 29 meeting, however, could bring the issue to a head.

Retired Rear Admiral David Simpson, chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, said his agency is ‘committed to protecting both public safety and national security as we continue to examine the input and issues in the proceeding, and will coordinate with our colleagues across the government to ensure that national security needs are addressed.’

The Pentagon has found itself blind-sided in the past by concerns about handing Russia the keys to U.S.-based signals intelligence.

In 2013 the State Department said it was considering giving Roscomos – the Russian space agency – clearance to erect six buildings in the U.S. outfitted with with antennas and signal processing electronics.

Members of Congress were outraged and wrote special language into the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act forbidding such deals with foreign nations.

Al-Nusra Front was gathering chlorine gas cylinders in February for undetermined attacks. They and Jaish al-Islam have been fighting on and off at least for a year for dominance in a number of areas. Al-Nusra had Jaish al-Islam hostages recently

Also – WMD is all over Syria and thanks to the Obama Administration and Hillary Clinton’s treasonous activities…the world is on the cusp of Armegeddon…

40 tons of chemical weapons left by militants found in Syria – Russian MoD

Russia’s sword-rattling at the United States following last week’s cruise-missile strike in Syria is likely a “posturing” gesture and not a true threat, retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely told Newsmax TV.

“It’s just the weight of Russia trying to trumpet some type of reaction to the hits on the Syrian airfield,” Vallely told host Bill Tucker on Monday’s “America Talks Live.”

“But it’s been very well supported, I think, even Saudi Arabia and many of the Arab countries said it’s the right thing to do.”

A joint command center made up of the forces of Russia, Iran, and militias supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the U.S. strike crossed “red lines,” and it would respond to any new aggression and increase its support for its ally.

The U.S. fired dozens of cruise missiles at a Syrian air base Friday from which it said a deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched earlier in the week.

Vallely said Syria’s use of deadly chemicals is nothing new.

“The 2013 sarin gas attack [killed] all these innocent civilians and children and so on,” he told Tucker. “But nobody would take any action at that time, so I’m glad Trump has finally done it.

“I think they’re planning a Phase II right now because all the aircraft were not taken out . . . Russia’s just posturing now. I think Secretary [of State Rex] Tillerson going to Moscow this week … [is a] mission to set up a summit between Trump and [Russia President Vladimir] Putin.

“The key is as we’ve told the Russians – and it’s very true – Assad has got to retire,” Vallely said.

Retired US Army Major General Paul Vallely, Chairman of Stand Up America Foundation, talks about the evolution of US President Donald Trump from businessman to President and the new role of the United States as it disengages from its previous interventionist role in the Middle East.

According to Vallely, it will take time for the United States to develop a new comprehensive strategy, in which issues in East Asia and illegal immigration over the Mexican border will play a greater role than the Middle East. He also noted that differences between Russia and the United States regarding Iran are possible to resolve over time.

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A meeting between President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin could occur this July — and rival the 1986 summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that ended the Cold War, retired Army Major Gen. Paul Vallely predicts.

“When I was in Moscow, one of the messages that I did receive that I can tell you [is] that President Putin understands from his standpoint what’s going on in the United States, and that Trump should be very patient, and that Putin is willing to meet with Trump at some point in time, because… we’re not going to solve the situation in Syria, the Middle East, without working with Turkey and with Russia,” he told Cosby.

The message, he said, was relayed to him through an unofficial channel — a British spy Vallely knows.

“The message is, basically, Putin understands these deceptive things that are going on in the political environment in the United States, and that he’ll be very patient from the standpoint of waiting, and if Trump decides, or wants to, he’ll be willing to meet with him,” Vallely said.

He added that the message suggested “maybe we can do a thing in Reykjavik, Iceland again, as Gorbachev and Reagan had to do when we saw the [Berlin] wall come down after that.”

“So, it’s more positive and I think President Trump understands that it’s more positive to meet with Putin and talk about the issues at hand, rather than trying to be adversarial,” Vallely said.

He said the Trump administration hasn’t responded yet.

“I think they’ve got other things on their plate right now,” he said. “But they know, and it’s something that can occur…. I’d say 90 days, maybe 120. I mean, I don’t know for sure, that’s up to the White House… but… it would be before the G20 conference in July.”

Vallely also revealed the Russians “like” Donald Trump.

“They see America finally with somebody with common sense that they can reason with,” Vallely said, adding that when the Russians “tried to reach back through a number of people to the Obama administration… the Obama administration would not reach back to the Russians at all.”

“And so we’re getting a Reagan-esqe type of approach now with Trump, who takes politics out of it and looks how to solve the problems, and you can only do that when you can make a deal with these people, and that’s what you have to do, bilateral deals.”

“So, it’s more positive and I think President Trump understands that it’s more positive to meet with Putin and talk about the issues at hand, rather than trying to be adversarial,” Vallely said.

He said the Trump administration hasn’t responded yet.

“I think they’ve got other things on their plate right now,” he said. “But they know, and it’s something that can occur…. I’d say 90 days, maybe 120. I mean, I don’t know for sure, that’s up to the White House… but… it would be before the G20 conference in July.”

Vallely also revealed the Russians “like” Donald Trump.

“They see America finally with somebody with common sense that they can reason with,” Vallely said, adding that when the Russians “tried to reach back through a number of people to the Obama administration… the Obama administration would not reach back to the Russians at all.”

“And so we’re getting a Reagan-esque type of approach now with Trump, who takes politics out of it and looks how to solve the problems, and you can only do that when you can make a deal with these people, and that’s what you have to do, bilateral deals.”

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